Cobra Movement in Postwar Europe - Reanimating Art

This book examines the art of Cobra, a network of poets and artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam (1948-1951). Although the name stood for the organizers' home cities, the Cobra artists hailed from countries in Europe, Africa, and the United States.
This book investigates how a group of struggling young artists attempted to reinvent the international avant-garde after the devastation of the Second World War, to create artistic experiments capable of facing the challenges of postwar society. It explores how Cobra's experimental, often collective art works and publications relate to broader debates in Europe about the use of images to commemorate violent events, the possibility of free expression in an art world constrained by Cold War politics, the breakdown of primitivism in an era of colonial independence movements, and the importance of spontaneity in a society increasingly dominated by the mass media.
This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, 20th-century modern art, avant-garde arts, and European history.

List of contents

Introduction: Reanimating Art; 1. Human Animals; 2. Surrealism Into Cobra; 3. War, Memory, and Renewal; 4. Expression for All; 5. Coda: New Networks

About the author

Karen Kurczynski is Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Summary

This book examines the art of Cobra, a network of poets and artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam (1948–51). Although the name stood for the organizers’ home cities, the Cobra artists hailed from countries in Europe, Africa, and the United States.

Product details

• Authors: Karen Kurczynski, Karen (University of Massachusetts Kurczynski, Kurczynski Karen
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2020
• EAN: 9781138490840
• ISBN: 978-1-138-49084-0
• No. of pages: 292
• Series: Routledge Research in Art History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Europe, Theory of art, Avant-garde, HISTORY / Europe / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, ART / History / General, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, ART / European, ART / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945), ART / Art & Politics, ART / History / Contemporary (1945-), ART / African, ART / American / General, HISTORY / Africa / South / Republic of South Africa, ART / Folk & Outsider Art, History of Art, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Art & design styles: Modernist design & Bauhaus, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General